A Russian knifeman has allegedly stabbed two recuperating Ukrainian soldiers to death in a horrific attack at a shopping centre in southern Germany.
The Ukrainians were residents of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and were undergoing medical rehabilitation.
They were on a shopping trip in Murnau am Stafelsee when they were attacked by a man believed to be a Russian national.
Volodymr Kozin, 36, died at the scene, while 26-year-old Vicheslav Bezuhlyi died later in hospital from his wounds.
German police officers arrested a 57-year-old suspected Russian national at his home not far from the scene, according to the DPA news agency.
Shocking images circulated by German press showed what appeared to be a smudge of blood on the keyhole of the suspect’s front door.
A criminal investigation has been launched for the suspected double murder.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement about the deadly attack: “On April 27, two Ukrainian citizens, men born in 1987 and 2001, were killed by stabbing in Murnau am Stafelsee, Bavaria, Germany, at a local shopping centre.
“According to preliminary information, the deceased citizens were military personnel undergoing medical rehabilitation in Germany.”
No motive for the brutal killings has as yet been ascertained, Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said.
It was also not clear if the three men were acquainted or complete strangers.
People gathered at a small vigil for the murdered men at the shopping centre, where mourners laid flowers, candles and a Ukrainian flag on a wall outside the premises.
More than a million Ukrainian refugees came to Germany since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Germany is also home to a significant Russian immigrant community and 2.5 million Russians of German ancestry who mostly moved to the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
